MAKING HISTORY: The Ladies' Home Journal Sit-In

In honor of Women's History Month, we are celebrating with 31 days of women's history! Every day in March, we will highlight an historic moment, as told through the personal stories of our MAKERS.

Today we highlight the 1970 sit-in at the Ladies' Home Journal. MAKER Susan Brownmiller, author of the groundbreaking book Against Her Will: Men, Women, and Rape, shares her memories of the the sit-in where 200 women who were fed up with the way the male-run magazine portrayed women stormed the Editor-in-Chief's office and demanded the magazine change.

"Men were running it by a formula that said women should be happy housewives. That this was women's destiny."

The women presented a list of demands to the then Editor-in-Chief John Mack Carter, who refused to sign, but did allow the protestors to produce a section of the issue that would appear in a later issue. Three years later, senior editor Lenore Hershey became Editor-in-Chief.